“New Beginnings” - Oil paint on stretched canvas
In honor of MLK Day I reread the “I Have A Dream” speech and it brings tears to my eyes every time ❤️ “....I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be plain and the crooked places will be made straight, “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brother-hood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day. This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.... “From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” ❤️

Today I changed out all the light bulbs in my studio to GEs Reveal bulbs. They are suppose to cancel out yellow light creating sharper color contrast. I already have noticed a difference.
Also took time to order some new canvases and painting supplies from @blickartmaterials. So exciting!

“The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around ... But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.“ Martin Luther King, Jr. (from “I've Been to the Mountaintop.”)⁣
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Listening to the tributes roll along today, I felt particularly struck by this line (and it fortuitously matched this sleepy wolf I’m working on 🐺🌌💫)⁣
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We all have moments in our life when the light from our star, the sun, drowns out the light from the multitude of other stars. We (rightly) love to wrap ourselves in this light and joy.⁣
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But there is balance in all things. ⁣
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During the depth of our personal nights we can choose to complain that we cannot see, that we are surrounded by darkness, perhaps that we’ve tripped over a branch (!) OR we can choose to look up. ⁣
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If we make that decision, we will see the reassuring twinkle that is always above us, whether we can see it or not. My hope is that if I practice this often enough I will learn to trust in the constancy and power of the million small, good things.

5 131 hour ago

There’s something so lovely about worn-out and paint-splattered brushes. Little works of art on their own ☺️(and I spy a Milton in the background 😂). #artforbreakfast#paintingprocess

0 42 hours ago

Getting ready to paint here. 🎨. I don’t normally use an aqua green or major pinks so I thought I’d play with the paint and see what I come up with. Here’s my final color choices. Next image you can see how they mix to make a beautiful grey- I’ll need this throughout the painting. And the third image you see my original colored pencil color comp with splotches of paint for checks. The blue isn’t perfect but what I see on my pallet is what I like. I’ll of course vary tone and value on the painting. The colors don’t need to match the color comp exactly as it’s only a tool or a guide to help you.

#21daysinmyartworld Day 13 - process insight.
Much of my process is about layering—first building up marks, then covering up areas to quiet them down, then repeating, until it feels just right. It involves letting go of areas I might love in order to get a stronger painting.
An important part is pushing myself to take risks — here laying down big areas of coral. It might not even show up in the end, or it might dominate. I never know ahead of time.